Minor Arcana
by SuccessorLavi
Summary: Prequel to Chibi-Moyashi's "Major Arcana". Introducing Miss Penelope Wright, an exorcist with a powerful Innocence and a dark secret. Can she use her power to save her friends? Or will the source of her power be her undoing?


_Hey, people! Okay, so this is my first fic and I'm not sure how good it is, but I put it up anyway, 'cause it needs to be shared! It's a prequel to Chibi-Moyashi's "Major Arcana" (that's the reason for the wierd name) and it's all about my OC. _

**Disclaimer:**_ I don't own DGM (much to my everlasting dismay) -_- _

_So without further ado, here it is! _

**Minor Arcana**

The Black Order; an organization dedicated to ridding the world of Akuma and defeating the Millennium Earl. The Headquarters, located at the top of a remote mountain in the north of Britain, is the place most exorcists call home. It was a good place to rest and refuel before heading back out into the field. One such exorcist, a Miss Penelope Wright, was in fact currently doing just that. Beholding her as she slept, one would never guess that would be capable of destroying legions of Akuma without breaking a sweat. Her short, blonde hair was spread across her pillow, surrounding her slender face in a golden halo. Her silver-grey eyes, now closed, were much more relaxed than in her waking hours, lacking the tightness that seemed a natural part of her expression. Her long, lean, and deceptively strong body was sprawled carelessly across her bed, rumpling the sheets and making her seem much younger than her sixteen years. Just than, the first light of dawn illuminated the room, and Penny opened her eyes. She stared at the ceiling dazedly for a minute, blinking slowly, gently emerging from the fog of sleep. Then she sat up, eyes scanning the room urgently until they came to rest on the tall, rather deadly-looking scythe leaning against the foot of her bed.

The girl breathed a sigh of relief, then smirked. _Why do I do that?_ she wondered. _It's not like my scythe could just grow legs and run away._ The thought was cynical and self mocking, but if truth be told, she was still a bit worried. Her weapon was her most treasured possession, because it was what granted her access to the elite world of the exorcists. Her Dark Scythe, her Da-kugai, was her Innocence. If it was ever lost or stolen, Penny's life would be lost with it. The Black Order was her only home; she had nowhere else to go. _Of course, it's not like anyone here would ever __dare__ to take Da-kugai_, Penny reassured herself. She grinned at the thought, because it was true. Nobody had ever borne the full force of her wrath and survived with all their limbs intact, or their sanity, for that matter.

_Well, nobody except for Kanda_, she mused. _Speaking of which…_

"Oh, crap," muttered Penny. "I'm late for training _again_. Kanda's going to be _pissed_." As she said this, the girl jumped out of bed and quickly donned her training outfit, which consisted of loose-fitting black pants, shoes, and a white shirt. She quickly ran a hand through her hair, grabbed Da-kugai and was out the door.

Kanda was impatient. He had been waiting almost an hour for that damned Penelope to show up. What was the point of training with someone, he wondered, if that someone doesn't eve show up on time? Admittedly, Penelope was the only one who could hold her own against him in a fight, but still! Punctuality never hurt anyone! Kanda sighed. He knew he could just go ahead and train by himself, but he had become used to training with that girl. It was much more challenging fighting with an opponent than it was doing exercises alone. Well, there was another reason he'd rather wait for that stupid girl. He was determined to defeat her in combat, just once, just to prove that he was, in fact, the best. She was not making it easy, though; he had yet to beat her. But he would one day, and when that day came, he could go back to training alone. For now, however, Kanda just sighed irritably and resigned himself to waiting.

Penny burst through the training-room doors at a dead sprint. When she saw Kanda waiting in the middle of the room with a look of more-than-minor irritation on his face, she slowed down and approached the angry samurai with an appropriate look of contrition on her face.

"Sorry I'm late, Kanda," she said. "I must've slept in again…"

"Che," was all the response she got, but Penny wasn't worried. Kanda was always like this; even if she had shown up on time, that was probably all he would have said anyway.

"Okay, let's do a dry run for about half an hour, then with Innocence until somebody wins, or it's breakfast time", suggested Penny, already settling into a ready stance. Kanda nodded tersely, also crouching, holding Mugen across his body as he had done hundreds of times before. They stared at each other for an eternal second…then they leapt at each other, weapons slicing through the air. The fight was on.

Kanda was disgusted with himself. They had been fighting for nearly half an hour now, and he _still_ had not been able to gain an advantage. But it was more than that, because he could not entirely suppress a growing feeling of trepidation. Because as formidable as Penelope was without her Innocence, it was nothing compared to when she activated. Even as he thought this, the clock behind them struck, announcing the half hour mark.

Quick as thought, Kanda cried "Innocence, activate!" , running his fingers down Mugen's deadly length. He turned, Mugen glowing with an unearthly blue light, and paused. Penelope was just now activating her Innocence, and although Kanda knew he should take advantage of this opening, he couldn't quite bring himself to do so. That girl's Innocence was unlike any he had ever seen, and he never quite tired of watching it activate. As the younger girl spoke her invocation, a wave of darkness swept down her scythe, turning the silver blade pure black. An unseen wind ruffled her clothes, and an aura of darkness seemed to gather around her, although the light remained unchanged. The most unnerving part, however, was the girl's eyes. Just as her scythe blade had done, her silver eyes changed to black. She stepped forward slightly, grinning, and Kanda stepped back involuntarily. Penelope looked more demon than human now, a demon from the depths of hell come to claim his soul.

Penelope was in a very good mood. Training had gone really well today, and her subsequent shower had left her feeling refreshed and hurrying towards the commons for breakfast. She hadn't defeated Kanda, of course; the Japanese was far too good a swordsman to ever allow that to happen, but seeing his slight display of fear at her Innocence always brightened her day. Kanda was always so stoic and holier-than-thou that seeing him display a weakness, no matter how insignificant, was quite refreshing.

Turning the corner, Penny entered the cafeteria, and immediately scanned the room for the shock of red hair that heralded the presence of her best friend and partner-in-crime, Lavi. Not seeing him, she remembered that Lavi was off on a mission somewhere and wouldn't be back for weeks. She sighed, then shrugged. She didn't mind eating alone. She turned and headed towards the counter where Jerry stood expectantly, waiting to serve his next patron.

"Hey, Jerry," she called, and the man in question turned.

"Well good morning, Miss Penelope!" he said with a smile. "How are you today?"

"I was fine until you called me 'Miss Penelope'," she answered. "It's just Penny, okay?"

Jerry smiled, but showed no inclination to act upon this request. "What can I get for you this morning?"

"Umm…three fried eggs, some bacon, hash browns, a muffin, and a cup of tea," she answered.

"Coming right up," the cook said. He turned and began preparing Penny's breakfast. "You know," Jerry called over the sizzling of frying bacon, "If I didn't know any better, I'd swear you were a parasite-type, Miss Penelope."

Penny just rolled her eyes in response to both the cook's bad joke and his use of her full name.

When her breakfast was ready, Penny took her tray, thanked Jerry, and sat down at an empty table near the door. She dug in with almost indecent enthusiasm, and was almost finished when a shadow fell across her plate. She turned, and found a bright green eye grinning down at her.

"Lavi! I thought you were out on a mission! What are you doing here?" she didn't bother asking him when he had come in; she had long since accepted that appearing out of thin air was just something Lavi did. Besides, she could always get him back later.

"The mission was a bust," Lavi answered, a little glumly. "No Akuma, no Innocence, just a bunch of superstitious villagers scared of a bear.

"That's too bad," said Penny sympathetically.

"Yeah, well, it's no big deal," the redhead replied, shrugging it off. He sat down beside his friend suddenly, and grinned his most mischievous grin. "So, do you have any plans for today?"

"Uh, not really…HEY! Let go of me, you dumb bunny!" Penny yelled in outrage as she was towed out of the cafeteria at near-lightspeed.

"No way. We've only got so much time until our next missions, and we can't let it go to waste without pranking Yuu-chan at least once," Lavi informed his friend.

Penny sighed wearily, but didn't protest otherwise. She knew that once Lavi had taken an idea into his head, there was no stopping him. And, though she didn't like to admit it, most of Lavi's pranks were actually pretty fun.

"So what's the plan, Junior?" Penny enquired of the exorcist who was, in fact, two years her senior.

"I'm glad you asked, Penny my girl-"

"Penny! There you are! I've been looking all over for you!" Komui's voice rang loud and authoritative, cutting off Lavi's excited chatter. "Listen, Lenalee is about to go on a mission and her partner just fell ill. Could you go with her instead?" The director looked at her with an almost painful hope.

"Uh, yeah, sure, I don't mind. Just give me five minutes and I'll meet you at the docks."

"Great! I'll go hold the boat for you!" Komui rushed off with an expression of great elation and relief.

Penny stared after him for a moment, then turned and ran full speed for her room, Lavi easily keeping pace.

"So, what's with Komui? He seemed awfully anxious for me to go with Lenalee."

"Oh, that," Lavi laughed. "It's probably the fact that you're the only other female exorcist here right now. He didn't want a guy to go on a mission with his Lenalee-chan unsupervised." They reached Penny's room and she dashed inside, leaving Lavi to lean on the door frame.

"Well, that's just weird. Wasn't her original partner a guy?" asked Penny as she quickly donned her travelling clothes.

"Yeah, Suman Dark was supposed to go with her. But if I know Komui, he's not sick at all. Most likely he's lying drugged in an unknown broom closet."

"That sounds like Komui, all right. Hey, help me with this, will you?"

"Sure," Lavi replied, stepping forward to help secure Penny's special chest harness that allowed her to carry Da-kugai across her back without having to hold onto it. Once it was on, Penny took her scythe and slid it expertly into the straps. She checked it's security, then threw her exorcist's cloak over the whole contraption, fastening it at the neck.

"Okay, let's go," Penny said, and they sprinted back out the door, Lavi being sure to avoid the deadly blade protruding from his companion's back. "You know," Penny said as she ran, "sometimes I wish Da-kugai could change size like your hammer. Then I could have it nicely tucked out of the way instead of having a great bloody pole sticking out of my back. Even Kanda has a nice, discreet sheath for Mugen," she added as they blew past the terminally pissed exorcist in the hall.

"Yeah," said Lavi, not about to disagree. He couldn't imagine having to carry his hammer around if it was always fighting size. "But you know, having Da-kugai visible all the time kind of gives you a presence. I mean, not many people will argue with a girl who's got a great scythe blade stickin' out of her head," Lavi grinned.

"Oh, gee, thanks," said Penny sarcastically, but she was grinning too.

They ran the rest of the way in companionable silence, and soon arrived at the underground canal that housed the Order's gondolas, and provided a convenient point of egress for departing exorcists.

Waiting for them on the dock were the Lee siblings, one in white, the other in dark blue. They both grinned at their approaching comrades, Komui perhaps a little more than Lenalee. In fact, Lenalee looked a little nervous. Penny wondered why that would be, and then remembered that she had never really talked to the other girl before, let alone gone on a mission with her. Remembering what Lavi had said about her having a "presence", she wondered if perhaps Lenalee was a little intimidated by her. Even aside from personality differences, Penny stood almost a head taller than Lenalee, and having Da-kugai close at hand probably didn't help much either. With this in mind, she smiles slightly at her partner, and received a shy smile in return.

"So, Penny, are you all ready to go?" asked Komui.

"Yeah, except I kind of need a mission brief."

"Oh, right!" Komui rummaged around in his coat for a minute, then exclaimed "Aha! There's the little devil!" He turned to Penny and handed her a small hardcover booklet with 'Mission Brief' embossed on the cover. "There you are. Lenalee will fill you in on the details on the way. It's in Germany, so you'll have some time."

"Okay," she replied. Then she turned to face Lavi, who had been watching the proceedings with an unfathomable expression. She grinned at him, lightly mocking. "Not worrying about me, are you Lavi?" She put a hand on her friend's shoulder and said more seriously, "Don't. You know I'll be fine."

Lavi nodded his head and grinned slightly, but didn't reply. Penny grinned back and stepped lightly into the waiting vessel, then reached back to help load the girl's collective luggage. When this chore was complete, Penny felt the boat dip slightly as Lenalee boarded. She glanced around, and seeing that all the preparations were complete, nodded to the Finder sitting unobtrusively in the stern of the craft. He nodded back and stood up to grasp the steering pole and push them away from the dock. The girls waved to their companions left behind, and were soon swallowed up in the blackness of the tunnel.

As Lavi watched his comrades disappear into the underground passage, he couldn't entirely suppress the most queer feeling that he should be going with the girls, that he should be there to protect them. To be fair, this feeling wasn't entirely misplaced with Lenalee; while she was a powerful and competent exorcist, she exuded a fragile air, as if the slightest impact could shatter her into a million pieces. However, the idea that Penny would ever need protecting was downright laughable. The fact that she was the only person on whom Yuu's death glare had no effect was proof enough. She would probably laugh in his face if he ever mentioned this protective urge to her. He wouldn't be mentioning it anytime soon. Still, whether he mentioned it or not, it was still there. Stubbornly, Lavi pushed it aside, passing it off as sadness that his best friend was gone. Now he had nobody to play pranks on Yuu-chan with!

_So, what did you think? Please review, and I will be motivated to finish ch.2! Please? I'll give you cookies..._


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